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WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, 



February 1, 1859. 



BOSTON: 

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
1859. 




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BOSTON : 
PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 

22, School Street. 







PROCEEDINGS. 



A Special Meeting of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society was held at their Rooms, in Tremont Street, on Tuesday- 
evening, February 1, to express their respect for the character and 
services of their late eminent associate, William Hickling 
Prescott, who died in Boston, on Friday, January 28, 1859. 

Among other arrangements for the occasion, the beautiful bust 
of the lamented Historian, by Eichard S. Greenough, and copies of 
his various Works, presented to the Society by himself, and placed 
upon the officers' table, were touching memorials of the loss which 
had been sustained. 

The meeting was called to order, at half-past seven o'clock, by 
the President, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop ; who, immediately on 
taking the chair, addressed the members as follows : — 

Gentlemen of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 

You are already but too well aware of the event 
Which has called us together. Our beautiful rooms 
are lighted this evening for the first time ; but the 
shadow of -an afflicting bereavement rests darkly and 
deeply upon our walls and upon our hearts. We are 
here to pay a farewell tribute to him whom we were 
ever most proud to welcome within our cherished 
circle of associates, but whose sunny smile is now left 



4 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

to us only as we see it yonder, in the cold though 
faithful outlines of art. We have come to deplore 
the loss of one who was endeared to us all by so 
many of the best gifts and graces which adorn our 
nature, and whose gentle and genial spirit was the 
charm of every company in which he mingled. We 
have come especially to manifest our solemn sense 
that one of the great Historical Lights of our country 
and of our age has been withdrawn from us for ever ; 
and to lay upon the closing grave of our departed 
brother some feeble but grateful acknowledgment of 
the honor he had reflected upon American literature, 
and of the renown he had acquired for the name of 
an American historian. 

For indeed, gentlemen, we have come to this com- 
memoration not altogether in tears. We are rather 
conscious at this moment of an emotion of triumph, — 
breaking through the sorrow which we cannot so 
soon shake off,— as we recall the discouragements and 
infirmities under which he had pressed forward so 
successfully to so lofty a mark, and as we remember, 
too, how modestly he wore the wreath which he had 
so gallantly won. And we thank God this night, 
that although he was taken away from us while 
many more years of happy and useful life might still- 
have been hoped for him, and while unfinished works 
of the highest interest were still awaiting his daily 
and devoted labors, he was yet spared until he had 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 5 

completed so many imperishable monuments of his 
genius, and until he had done enough — enough — at 
once for his own fame and for the glory of his 
country. " Satis, satis est, quod vixit, vel ad eetatem 
vel ad gloriam." 

Nor will we omit to acknowledge it as a merciful 
dispensation of Providence, that he was taken at last 
by no lingering disease, and after no protracted 
decline, but in the very way which those who knew 
him best were not unaware that he himself both 
expected and desired. Inheriting a name which 
had been associated with the noblest patriotism in 
one generation, and with the highest judicial wisdom 
in another; and having imparted a fresh lustre to 
that name, and secured for it a title to an even wider 
and more enduring remembrance, — he was per- 
mitted to approach the close of his sixty-third year in 
the enjoyment of as much happiness, as much respect, 
as much affection, as could well accompany any hu- 
man career. 

" Then, with no fiery, throbbing pain, 
No cold gradations of decay, 
Death broke at once the vital chain, 
And freed his soul the nearest way." 

It is not for me, gentlemen, to attempt any delinea- 
tion of his character, or any description of his 
writings. There are those among us who have 
known him longer than myself, and who have 



6 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

established a better title to pass judgment upon his 
productions. Let me only say, in conclusion, that, 
immediately on hearing of his sudden death, permis- 
sion was asked for this Society to pay the last tribute 
to his remains ; but it was decided to be more conso- 
nant with his own unostentatious disposition, that all 
ceremonious obsequies should be omitted. Having 
followed his hearse yesterday, therefore, only as 
friends, we have assembled now as a Society, of 
which for more than twenty years he was one of the 
most brilliant ornaments, to give formal expression to 
those feelings, which, in justice either to him, to our- 
selves, or to the community of which he was the 
pride, could not longer be restrained. 

It is for you, gentlemen, to propose whatever in 
your judgment may be appropriate for the occasion. 



At the close of the President's remarks, Mr. G. Ticknor 
rose and said : — 

Mr. President, — You have well told us why we 
are here at this unwonted hour. We feel the truth of 
every word you have uttered. The name that shone 
brighter than any other that was ever set on the rolls 
of our Society, in its distinctive attribute as a Society 
for the promotion of historical research, has been 
stricken from them, so far as such a name can be, by 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 7 

the hand of death. And we come to mourn together 
for our loss. We do not come to praise the friend 
and associate whom it has pleased a wise and merciful 
God to take away from us. His praise is beyond our 
reach. It extends as far as letters are valued or 
known. We can neither add to it nor diminish it. 
We come to mourn together. 

I have no words of formal eulogy to offer. In this 
moment of sorrow, I cannot say what I would. But 
this I am able to say, — and it becomes the occasion 
that it should be said, — that to those of us who knew 
him from the days of his bright boyhood, down to his 
latest years, when he stood before the world crowned 
with its honors, the elements that constituted the 
peculiar charm of his character seemed always to be 
the same ; that his life — his whole life — was to an 
extraordinary degree a happy one, governed by a pre- 
valent sense of duty to God and love to man; and 
that he has been taken from us with unimpaired 
faculties, and with a heart whose affections grew 
warmer and more tender to the last. 

At the end of a life like this, although suddenly 
terminated, he naturally left few wishes for posthu- 
mous fulfilment ; and the few that he did leave were 
of the simplest and most unpretending sort. But one 
was most characteristic and touching ; and, as it has 
been accomplished, it may fitly be mentioned here. 
He desired that, after death, his remains might rest 



8 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

for a time in the cherished room where were ga- 
thered the intellectual treasures amidst which he had 
found so much of the happiness of his life. His wish 
was fulfilled. There he lay, — it was only yesterday, 
sir, — his manly form neither wasted nor shrunk by dis- 
ease ; the features, which had expressed and inspired so 
much love, still hardly touched by the effacing fingers 
of death : there he lay, and the great lettered dead of 
all ages and climes and countries seemed to look down 
upon him in their earthly and passionless immortality, 
and claim that his name should hereafter be imperish- 
ably united with theirs. And then, when this his 
wish had been fulfilled, and he was borne forth from 
those doors which he had never entered except to give 
happiness, but which he was never to enter again, — 
then he was brought into the temple of God, where 
he had been used to worship, and into a company of 
the living such as the obsequies of no man of letters 
have ever before assembled in this land ; and there a 
passionate tribute of tears and mourning was paid to 
the great benefits he had conferred on the world, and 
to his true and loving nature, which would have been 
dearer to his heart than all the intellectual triumphs 
of his life. 

And now that all this is past ; now that we have 
laid him beside the father whom he so truly reve- 
renced, — whom we all so reverenced, sir, — and the 
mother whom he so tenderly loved, and who was loved 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. V 

of all, and especially of all in sorrow and suffering, — 
now what remains for us to do 1 It is little, very little. 
We can express our respect, our admiration, and our 
love ; we can mourn with those who were nearest and 
dearest to him. These, indeed, constitute our incum- 
bent duty ; and therefore, sir, I propose to you now, 
even in this season of our bitter sorrow, to fulfil it, 
and, as becomes such a moment, to fulfil it in the few- 
est and the simplest words. 

Mr. Ticknor then read the following resolutions: — 

Resolved, That, as members of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society, we look back with gratitude and 
pride upon the brilliant career of our late associate, 
William Hickling Prescott, who, not urged by his 
social position to a life of literary toil, and discouraged 
by an infirmity which seemed to forbid success, yet 
chose deliberately, in his youth, the difficult path of 
historical research, and, by the force of genius, of cou- 
rage, and of a cheerful patience, achieved for himself, 
with the full assent of Christendom, an honored place 
in the company of the great masters of history in all 
countries and in all ages. 

Resolved, That, while we mourn the loss of one who 
has thus made our country and the world his debtors, 
we yet, in this moment of our sudden bereavement, 
grieve rather that we miss the associate and friend 
whom we loved, as he was loved of all who knew him, 

2 



10 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

for the beauty, the purity, and the transparent since- 
rity, of his nature ; for his open and warm sympathies ; 
and for the faithful affections, to which years and the 
changes of life only added freshness and strength. 

Resolved, That we request the President of this 
Society to transmit these resolutions to the family of 
our lamented and honored associate, expressing to 
them the deep sympathy we feel in their affliction, 
and commending them to the merciful God in whom 
he trusted, and to the influences of that religion in 
which he was wont to find consolation under trial and 
suffering. 



In rising to second these resolutions, Jared Sparks, LL.D., 
offered the following remarks : — 

Mr. President, — An intimate acquaintance with 
our departed associate for a long term of years, and a 
friendship and affectionate esteem growing stronger 
as those years advanced, have produced ties and sym- 
pathies which could not be severed without leaving a 
deep impression on my mind and feelings. The 
qualities of his heart, of his intellect and character, 
were such as to win the steady confidence and attach- 
ment of all who knew him, as many of us who are 
here present have known him. But, after what has 
been so well and so justly said on these topics, I shall 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 11 

forbear to enlarge upon them. I rise, therefore, 
mainly to express my entire accordance with what has 
been said, and especially with the resolutions which 
have been offered. 

I will, however, briefly touch upon those traits of 
his mind which qualified him for the remarkable suc- 
cess he attained as a historian. The highest requi- 
sites for a writer in this department of literature are a 
love of truth, impartiality, a discriminating judgment, 
and a resolute purpose to procure all the facts that 
can be found, enabling him to render full justice to 
his subject. These requisites he possessed in an 
eminent degree. Read his works through, and you 
will find' the evidence of them impressed upon every 
page. You will find no extravagant theories, no over- 
wrought descriptions to disguise the faults or foibles 
of a favorite hero, none of the resorts of the casuist to 
sustain or defend a doubtful policy ; in short, none of 
those intricate and questionable by-paths of opinion 
or assertion into which historians are sometimes 
led by their personal antipathies or partialities. 
Truth was his first aim, as far as he could detect it in 
the conflicting records of events ; and his next aim 
was to impress this truth, in its genuine colors, upon 
the reader. The characters and motives of men were 
weighed in the scales of justice, as they appeared to 
him after careful research and mature thought. In 
all these qualities of an accomplished historian, we 



12 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

may safely challenge for him a comparison with any 
other writer. 

In his unceasing efforts and extraordinary success 
in procuring the materials for his various historical 
compositions, he has certainly surpassed all other 
writers. Previous historians had, to some extent, 
made similar efforts ; but I can say, with entire confi- 
dence, after my historical studies, such as they have 
been, that I know of no historian, in any age or lan- 
guage, whose researches into the materials with 
which he was to work have been so extensive, tho- 
rough, and profound, as those of Mr. Prescott. He 
was unwearied in his search after original documents, 
wherever they were to be found; never relying on 
secondary authorities, when it was possible to obtain 
those that were original or more to be depended 
upon. And it is wonderful with what success these 
efforts were attended, considering the sources he 
explored, particularly in Spain, where they had been 
for a long time, in a great measure, secluded from 
examination. But his perseverance, and, more than 
all, the peculiar and undisguised traits of his charac- 
ter, inspiring confidence in those who had this preju- 
dice against allowing those materials to be exposed 
to the world, seemed to unlock every secret deposi- 
tory, especially after these traits had been so clearly 
unfolded in his first historical work. His obligations 
for these signal favors are freely and fully acknow- 



WILLIAM HICKLIXG PRESCOTT. 13 

ledged in his prefaces ; and, in the use he has made 
of the materials thus acquired, no one has had occa- 
sion to regret the implicit reliance that was placed on 
his discretion, judgment, and integrity. But, in all 
this, there was no ostentation or parade. He quietly 
pursued his course, devoting his time and thoughts to 
the pursuit he had chosen, and glad to gather from 
every quarter whatever would give more weight, 
character, and force to the work in which he was 
engaged, and thus contribute to enlighten the public, 
and produce the result he desired. 

The theme is a broad one, Mr. President; but I 
will not encroach farther on the time, which may be 
employed with more effect by others. I will only 
repeat my cordial assent to what has been said by the 
gentlemen who have spoken, and to the sentiments 
expressed in the resolutions, and second those reso- 
lutions. 



Rev. James Walker, D.D., President of Harvard University, 
then spoke as follows : — 

Mr. President, — I am the only classmate of Mr. 
Prescott now present. My recollections of him go 
back to our college-days, when he stood among us 
one of the youngest, one of the most joyous and 
light-hearted, hi classic learning one of the most 



14 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

accomplished, without any enemies, with nothing 
but friends. I remember also the accident — I 
think it happened in our junior year — which 
withdrew him from us for some time, and was 
followed by permanent injury to his sight. Never 
was there a more instructive lesson on the vanity 
of human judgments as to what is good or evil in 
passing events. "We all lamented it as a great 
calamity ; yet it helped, at least, to induce that 
earnestness and concentration of life and pursuit 
which has won for him a world-wide influence and 
fame. 

Of his subsequent career, there are many here 
who are better qualified to speak than I am. But 
I must be permitted to say one thing which was true 
of him from the first to the last. Of all the men 
whom I have known, I have never known one so 
little changed by the conventionalities of society, and 
the hard trial of success and prosperity. At college, 
and on the morning of the day he died, he was the 
same in his dispositions ; the same in his outward 
manners ; the same in his habits of thought and 
feeling; the same, to a remarkable degree, even in 
his attitudes and looks. It was because his character 
was a true and real character. He never aspired to 
become the representative of a new movement or 
a new idea. He was content to be himself. Hence 
it was, as I believe, that he suffered so little from 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 15 

the envies and jealousies and heart-burnings which 
sometimes find their way even among literary men. 
He was one of that happy few whom all love to hear 
praised. 

Mr. President, I am oppressed by the occasion and 
the scene. The shadow of death is upon us ; but it 
is a beautiful and accomplished life which we are 
called to consider, and it will do us good to ponder 
it well. 



The meeting was then addressed by Hon. John C. Gray : — 

Mr. President, — If I have any right to say any 
thing on this occasion, it is derived from the fact, — 
to which my excellent friend who moved the resolu- 
tions will bear witness, — that few here can have 
been in closer personal contact with Mr. Prescott 
than I have been. It was my good fortune, forty 
years since, to travel with him through the most 
interesting portion of Europe. We all know, that, 
with fellow-travellers, acquaintance ripens rapidly. 
No man can bear better witness to his kind and 
genial spirit, — a spirit which had always a kind word 
for those to whom it could afford gratification, and 
which never had an ill word to utter to, or in respect 
to, any one. If he had the rare lot of being honored 
without being envied, — and who had it more \ — he 



16 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

reaped no more than he sowed. He was not proud of 
his own distinction, and still less did he entertain any 
uncomfortable feelings on account of the distinction 
of others. His good wishes and assistance were al- 
ways at the service of those who had need of them. 

I must have seen, of course, very much of the 
characteristics and temper of our friend, in such 
varieties of incident as happen to all fellow-travellers ; 
some of them trifling in themselves, but not less apt, 
perhaps, to bring out uncomfortable feeling than more 
important emergencies which occur less frequently: 
and I can bear witness to his genial, kind, and cheer- 
ful spirit, — a cheerfulness that was always at the 
highest point, yet always sustained. I have, of course, 
had much conversation with him, and heard him speak 
much of others, — not excepting the unfortunate 
young man who all but deprived him of sight, — 
and he never spoke of any one in other than the 
kindest and most Christian spirit; for, sir, he was 
a Christian, and in this, as in all other respects, alike 
free from ostentation and disguise. 

I will not detain the Society longer. They will 
excuse me if I say that I could not suffer this oppor- 
tunity to pass — the last, perhaps, which I shall 
have — without offering such open testimony to his 
character as was prompted by my feelings, and as I 
was qualified to render by my personal acquaintance, 
if in no other respect. I will, however, close with 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 17 

the narration of an incident. After Mr. Prescott had 
finished his first great work, so little was he inspired 
with a fervid ambition, or any thing like an inordinate 
desire for distinction, that I am told he said to his 
late honored father, that he had had the gratification 
of writing the work, and that he should place it on 
his shelf, and leave it for those who should come after 
him. He was dissuaded from so doing, and was en- 
couraged to give it to the world ; and, sir, much as 
we have held in remembrance the services of that 
honored man, his father, if what he said to his son 
was the means of bringing that son's works before the 
public, I think we shall agree that he could have 
rendered few services of greater moment to the com- 
munity. 



Mr. Sparks again rose, and, addressing the President, said, — 

If you will allow me, sir, I will detain the Society 
with the mention of an incident connected with the 
publication of Mr. Prescott's first work, — his " Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella," — which the anecdote of Mr. 
Gray has called to my mind. It is known that 
Mr. Prescott's eyesight was then so feeble, that it 
was difficult for him to read ; and, for the purpose of 
carefully preparing the composition of his work, he 
had it printed in large type, in quarto form, so that 



18 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

he could read it, and correct it for the press, instead 
of revising it in manuscript. After it was finished, 
he sent me his two volumes, printed as I have de- 
scribed, and requested me to read them. I did so, of 
course, with very great pleasure and profit, and with 
no little surprise at the success of the writer, under 
his infirmity of sight, in accomplishing the work in so 
thorough and finished a manner. I returned the 
volumes ; and, soon after, saw Mr. Prescott. He asked 
me, with a good deal of diffidence, what I thought 
of the book. I told him there could be but one 
opinion about it ; that I had read the book with great 
delight, and thought he had written one of the most 
successful works of its kind that had come before the 
public. " But perhaps," said he, " you have read it 
under the bias of some degree of partiality and 
friendly feeling." I told him I could not say as to 
that ; but I had been exceedingly gratified with the 
perusal of the book. He then asked, " Do you think 
it should be published \ " — " To be sure," I replied : 
" have you not written it to be published ] " He still 
expressed doubts, and enumerated objections. In the 
first place, the subject was not one likely to interest 
American readers : it related to Spain, and times long 
past. In the next place, he doubted very much 
whether the composition and execution of the work 
were of such a character as would make it attractive. 
His opinion was, in short, that it would not succeed. 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 19 

Of course, I used what arguments I could, and told 
him that no impression of that sort could be enter- 
tained by any mind but his own. I left him, how- 
ever, in that state of uncertainty. 

Mr. Gray has explained how he was induced to 
publish the work at last. The anecdote is charac- 
teristic of Mr. Prescott, and illustrates his modesty, 
and entire freedom from self-estimation. 



The meeting was next addressed by the Hon. Josiah Quincy, 
who was admitted a member of the Society the very year in which 
Mr. Prescott was born : — 

I have been particularly requested, as one who 
has been a member of this Society for more than 
sixty years, to make some expression of my 
feelings on this occasion, in memory of this distin- 
guished citizen and exemplary man ; otherwise I 
should not have ventured to obtrude them in the 
presence of so many gentlemen, who, from similarity 
of age, of pursuits, of taste, of genius, and long, inti- 
mate personal familiarity, are so much better quali- 
fied than I am to do justice to his singular and rare 
merits. As an historian, the world has already 
uttered all that can be said. No tribute can be paid 
to his worth and his talents, in this respect, which 



20 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

has not been already anticipated and expressed in his 
lifetime. 

His merits were singular, and such as society does 
not often witness, and to which it has seldom the 
opportunity to do justice. He was the son of a 
father who, in purity of life, in elevation of sentiment, 
in soundness of judgment, had, among his contempo- 
raries, no superior, and was surpassed by few, if any, 
in talents or legal knowledge. Had his character 
been of a common type, he would have sunk under the 
lustre of his parent's virtues, or been content to live 
in the enjoyment and imitation of them. But, in- 
spired and directed by the same spirit, he saw, that, 
at the bar and in the senate- chamber, there was no 
honor to be acquired which his father had not at- 
tained; and, instinctively shunning both, he took a 
path in which intellectual power was less severely 
tested, and its rewards far more wide-spread and 
universal. 

It is not requisite here to speak of the success and 
unqualified renown with which he has crowned and 
made immortal his memory. His merits were not 
only singular, but rare. Few men ever rose to such 
an extent and height of reputation, without, in look, 
language, or demeanor, indicating somewhat or some- 
where a sense of the honors he had acquired. But 
William H. Prescott's modesty was as innate and 
deep-seated as his genius. The delicacy of his tern- 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESC0TT. 21 

perament shrunk from public notice and praise. To 
the merits of others, he was just and liberal ; concern- 
ing his own, reserved or silent. 

While cultivating the fields of literature, he prac- 
tised and exemplified all the virtues, and gave new 
splendor and a wider sphere to the intellect he had 
inherited. 

His life is a lesson, an incentive and example. 
Truth, purity, unaffected humility, combined with 
steady, persevering, wisely directed labor, charac- 
terized his whole course. 

An accident in early life had nearly quenched his 
corporeal light. So much more his intellectual light 
seemed to burn inward, dispersing the veil of corpo- 
real darkness, and revealing to the world a luminary 
casting a light on past time, in which all future time 
will rejoice. 



The meeting was then addressed by Rev. N. L. Frothingham, 
D.D., Prof. C. C. Felton, Hon. James Savage, and Hon. 
George T. Curtis. 

REMAKES OF REV. N. L. FROTHINGHAM, D.D. 

Mr. President, — Before a company where there 
are so many eloquent tongues, I should not have the 
presumption to say any thing, should have no apology 
for saying any thing, of our dear associate, so lately 
taken away from us, if it were not for the memories 



22 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

that travel back so far as the time when neither of us 
had reached the full age of manhood, for the compa- 
nionship that I had the privilege of enjoying with him 
afterwards, and especially for the sacred relation in 
which I stood to him for a number of years in the 
ripest and most distinguished portion of his days. 
While he was a student in the University, I was 
brought into close neighborhood with him, and some- 
thing like official connection. This was just before 
that severe calamity befell him ; w T hich one is yet 
hardly justified in calling a calamity, so manfully, so 
sweetly, so wondrously did he not only endure it, but 
convert it to the highest purposes of a faithful, scho- 
larly, serviceable life. Before he published the first 
of those histories which have given him so proud a 
place in the literature, not only of his own country, 
but of the British and Continental world, it was my 
happiness to be engaged with him year after year in 
examining the students of the College in the modern 
languages, where his attendance was as freely given 
as if he had nothing else to do, and as if his eyes were 
as sound as his intellect, and where his presence was 
always a delight. After this, in the year 1841, he 
became a worshipper at the First Church, where a 
holier bond was formed, and where its minister might 
learn, from an example more shining than his lessons, 
the beauty of a reverent, thoughtful, dutiful Christian 
mind. 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 23 

These are my claims, Mr. President, to say a few 
words ; and very few are all that it will become me to 
say, in the midst of so much admiration and sorrow. 
They shall be words narrowed into one particular 
direction, — my conception of his private and personal 
worth ; and this not with the slightest thought of an 
intent to depict his moral portrait, not to undertake to 
analyze in the least degree the elements of his fine 
nature, but simply to convey, with a touch or two, my 
sense of what he was, rather than of what he accom- 
plished. Let others tell of his labors and their splen- 
did success. Let these be set forth in all the terms 
of eulogy for the instruction and encouragement of 
youths and men, and as a just tribute to his own fame. 
As for me, I cannot think of these things now. Par- 
don me for saying such a word in a company where 
so many are loyal to Learning as to a sovereign mis- 
tress, and so many are enjoying the bright prizes of 
society ; but, to my thinking, when we have just borne 
away our dead, literary achievement does not seem so 
much as it did, and the best-deserved applause has 
something hollow in its sound. Let me look at our 
valued associate only in the light of his gentle, cheer- 
ful, steadfast, noble disposition. That light came all 
from within. I am willing to look away at present 
from the broader but inferior glory. 

The man was more than his books. His character 
was loftier than all his reputation. So simple-minded 



24 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

and so great-minded ; so keen in his perceptions, but 
so kind in his judgments ; so resolute, but so unpre- 
tending ; so considerate of every one, and so tasking 
of himself ; so full of the truest and warmest affections ; 
so merry in his temper, without overleaping a single 
due bound ; such spirit, but such equanimity ; so much 
thoughtfulness, without the least cast of sickliness ; 
doing good as by the instinct of spontaneous activity, 
and doing labor without a wrinkle or a strain ; un- 
swerving in his integrity, and with the nicest sense of 
honor; whom no disadvantage could dishearten, no 
prosperity corrupt, no honors and plaudits elate or 
alter one whit ; modest, as if he had never done any 
thing ; retaining through life all the artlessness of the 
highest wisdom; with a liberal heart and an open 
hand; the ingenuousness of youth flashing to the 
last from his frank face ; walking in sympathy with 
his fellows, and humbly before God, Ah ! Mr. Pre- 
sident, we ought to make some allowance for those 
who, born with a less genial and upward nature, of a 
more stubborn material or ruder shape, with fewer 
of those native endowments and appetences which 
come direct from the Father of spirits, are unable to 
perform so much. 

I will do no more than repeat a single anecdote, so 
characteristic of our lamented friend, that, simple as it 
is, it will bear to be recorded as a representative fact. 
His mother — and, truly, who was ever descended from 



WILLIAM HIOKLING PRESCOTT. 25 

a nobler parentage on both sides than he ] — his mo- 
ther, as she sat with me one day in my stndy, said, 
" This is the very room where William was shnt up 
for so many months in utter darkness. In all that 
trying season, when so much had to be endured, and 
our hearts were ready to fail us for fear, I never in a 
single instance groped my way across the apartment 
to take my place at his side, that he did not salute me 
with some hearty expression of good cheer, — not in 
a single instance ; as if we were the patients, and it 
was his place to comfort us." No word of complaint 
through all that dismal period ; no sigh of impatience 
or regret. He was not content even with the perfect 
silence of an unrepining will ; but he must sing in that 
imprisonment and night. Is this not a representative 
example \ We cannot be surprised at any thing that 
followed after this. Was not this the man to win 
crowns of laurel and oak, and to wear them as if they 
were the natural growth of his hair \ 

And now that he has been just so long gone that 
the wound of his loss is fresh, and the grief sore, and 
yet there has been time for the shock to subside, and 
reflection to claim its healing office, I think we must 
feel it to be good for him and us that he was taken 
away by a noiseless appointment and a swift angel, 
just as it was, — just as it was ; that the second touch 
of his malady was so absolute : — 

" Xo pale gradations quenched his ray, 
Xo twilight mists." 
4 



26 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

" Felix, Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate, sed etiam 

opportunitate mortis." He was taken in the midst of 

his honorable toils, his high faculties, his bright name, 

his full tides of intellect and love, his troops and 

armies of admiring regards, on the verge of the grand 

climacteric of his well-used years. No one will take 

up and carry on his unfinished tasks. Who can % who 

need ] We can bear that deprivation. But we do not 

know how we should have borne the slow crumbling of 

so rare a mansion ; the crippling of so sweet an energy ; 

the clouding over, deeper and deeper, of that clear 

intellect ; the fitful freezing and thawing, stopping and 

flowing, of the currents of the diviner life. We will 

hide our eyes from that terrible peril. We will give 

thanks that he was taken, though snatched, from so 

dreary an evil. All is well with him now. He is 

emancipated, and not exposed or bound. 



" These shall swim after death, with their choice deeds 
Shining on their white shoulders." 



REMARKS OF PROF. C. C FELTON. 

Mr. President, — I thank you for the opportunity 
you allow me to add my voice to the voices of those 
who have given utterance here to the universal grief 
for this late public and private bereavement. Sir, I 
cannot say one word which will add to the fame of 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 27 

William H. Prescott ; but hereafter it will be a conso- 
lation to me, through all my life, that I had the privi- 
lege of mingling my tears with the tears of those who 
were nearest to him through the longest period of his 
life, under these circumstances, in this venerable pre- 
sence of the living, and the awful presence of the 
great departed, whose pictured and marble forms and 
printed works surround us. No one knew Mr. Pres- 
cott but to love him. It was not my privilege to 
know him in his early years ; but I have been an 
acquaintance, I hope I may say a friend, certainly a 
lover, of his, during the greater portion of my own life; 
and I think I may say with truth, that no death in 
this or any other community would touch with afflic- 
tion more hearts than have been and will be saddened 
by his death. 

Not only those (and there are thousands) who 
knew him personally, but those who knew him only 
in the printed page, — those who knew him in those 
beautiful works, — seemed to know the loveliness of 
his character, and to feel for their author all the ten- 
derness of personal affection. It is a saying, that 
" the style is the man ; " and of no great author in the 
literature of the world is that saying more true .than 
of him whose loss we mourn. For in the transparent 
simplicity and undimmed beauty and candor of his 
style were read the endearing qualities of his soul ; 
so that his personal friends are found wherever litera- 



28 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

ture is known, and the love for him is co-extensive 
with the world of letters, — not limited to those who 
speak our Anglo-Saxon mother-language, to the lite- 
rature of which he has contributed such splendid 
works, but co-extensive with the civilized languages 
of the human race. 

Mr. President, on the 5th of last May, — the day 
of my embarkation for Europe, — I called at Mr. 
Prescott's house, knowing how earnest and affection- 
ate would be the inquiries made with regard to him 
by those friends of his whom I should chance to meet 
abroad, and anxious to give to them the last best news 
I could upon the state of his health. And so, indeed, 
it was. No sooner had I touched my foot upon the 
English shores, than questions with regard to his con- 
dition were addressed to me by numerous English 
friends ; and I happened to meet some of those who 
had known him best and most affectionately in this 
country and in Europe. It was a satisfaction to me, 
that I had it in my power to give them the latest 
news on a subject which seemed to interest the heart 
of the whole literary world. 

Mr. President, scholars everywhere will feel this 
bereavement ; literary and scientific societies will 
notice it by commemorative rites. What a cloud will 
come over that fair and romantic land, whose history 
and literature he has done so much to adorn ! In 
Germany, where his profound learning and his vast 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 29 

acquirements in the department of history were 
thoroughly appreciated, and where his name is 
one of the greatest, — there, too, will his loss be 
deeply felt. In beautiful and unfortunate Italy, of 
whose literature he had early felt the charm, and over 
whose storied sites he had wandered in his youth, the 
name of Prescott has become a classic name. Ay, 
sir, more than that. In the lovely land where histo- 
rical composition had its origin, — in the land of 
Hellas, redeemed again to freedom, letters, and art, 
— even there the name of Prescott has become a 
classic name. Sir, it was only last July that I had 
the pleasure of looking upon the works of our dis- 
tinguished countryman, and of his lifelong friend who 
introduced these resolutions, standing side by side, 
in the University of Athens, with those of the illus- 
trious native masters. 

Sir, this sad news will speed over the earth and sea 
on the wings of the lightning. With the loveliness 
of returning spring, the announcement will be 
heard, even to the shores of Greece, that a great 
and pure light has been withdrawn from the West- 
ern World. It will come upon the festive rites of 
that most ancient Oriental church, that has survived 
so many ages of woe ; and, under the matchless glo- 
ries of the sky of Attica, a sense of bereavement and 
a wail of sorrow will mingle with the festivities and 
Christian welcomes of that joyous season. Be assured, 



30 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

sir, that, before the summer comes, eloquent eulogies 
upon the character and works of our departed coun- 
tryman will be pronounced before crowded audiences 
of Hellenic youth, in the language of Thucydides and 
Xenophon, in that same illustrious Athens where 
those great ancients lived whose renown has made 
her name immortal. ' 

Sir, this death of Mr. Prescott, which has fallen 
with such appalling suddenness upon us, struck me 
in a peculiar manner. It so happened, that, owing 
to a multiplicity of occupations since my return from 
Europe, I had not seen my friend, as I will venture 
to call him : and last Saturday, having a leisure day, 
I said to myself, " I will go early to town ; and the 
first thing I do shall be to call on Mr. Prescott, and 
tell him something of what his friends abroad have 
said to me." Passing from my own house to the rail- 
road, I stepped over to the Post Office, and took my 
morning papers ; and, on opening one of them, the 
first words that struck my astonished eyes were those 
announcing the death of William Hickling Prescott ! 

Sir, I deplore, and shall deplore to my dying day, 
that I have not seen and conversed with Mr. Prescott 
for some months past ; that, after parting with him in 
May, I met him only at the gate of the tomb to say a 
last farewell : but I shall console myself with the 
thought, that I have had the opportunity of adding 
my feeble voice to the earnest and eloquent testimo- 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 31 

nials to his great name and his lovely character on 
this occasion. One of those great writers and teach- 
ers of the historic art to whom I have alluded — 
Thucydides — speaks of " that simplicity in which 
nobleness of nature most largely shares," as the 
highest style of man ; and surely to no man, before 
or since the days of the profound historian of the 
Peloponnesian war, do those words apply with more 
pertinency and force than to the character of Prescott. 
And, as he lived, so he died. 

Great as the shock was, sad as this bereavement is, 
bitter as are our feelings in the first moments of our 
loss, we must all acknowledge that he accomplished 
a noble and brilliant life ; and, though he left 
works unfinished, whenever that great summons 
came, it would find him so employed, that works 
would still be left unfinished. For, Mr. President, it 
is not the lot of man to finish his tasks here below : 
that can only be done in the world above. But, sir, 
as my reverend friend has said, he was called away in 
the midst of happiness, as if by an angelic messenger. 
The summons came in a moment. It found him 
enjoying the light of the domestic hearth ; and, in an 
instant, his spirit was translated into the light of 
Eternal Love. That, Mr. President, was the eutha- 
nasia of our friend and associate. 






32 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

REMARKS OF HON. JAMES SAVAGE. 

Mr. President, — Enough has been said here, by 
those who enjoyed the acquaintance of Mr. Prescott, 
to afford to others a just estimate of his character ; 
for few could have acquaintance with him that was 
not an intimate one. He was transparent in such 
uncommon degree, that, in a short time, whoever 
was acquainted with him might become conversant 
with his character. Sir, it does not always happen, 
— but I thank Heaven the instances are not rare, — 
in which from a glorious father is derived a son with 
strong resemblance. Here have been three genera- 
tions of this stock claiming highest regard from the 
people of Massachusetts, and for very diverse qualities. 
He who commanded on Bunker Hill is known only, 
but universally, for his intrepidity. Brave to a degree 
beyond what belongs to the general spirit of soldiery, 
having labored all night in throwing up the works on 
that commanding spot; entitled, as his commander 
thought, to defend them through the day, — yet was he 
not a braver man than his son William, distinguished 
for widely different public service. The stainless honor 
of Judge Prescott needed not to be shown in deadly 
combat ; but whoever weighed his merit felt that he 
would have sustained at every hazard, even of instant 
death, the calm assertion of duty in vindication of the 
rights of his fellow-men. 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 33 

After the full and appropriate estimate of the pri- 
vate virtues and literary reputation, the endowments 
and acquisitions, of our late associate, I would ask, 
confidently, for a review of his characteristic and he- 
reditary distinction, — of unusual bravery in his pur- 
suits. What is the first requisite the Muse of History 
demands of her admirers 1 The truth, in every re- 
spect ; the truth, in spite of all opposition ; the truth 
with mildness, and with the affection and dignity that 
accompanied every word that Mr. Prescott ever said 
on paper or in the utterance of speech. Sir, he, 
more than any other man, I think, of my acquaint- 
ance, — and I refer to the delightful illustrations of 
his classmate, and to the more delightful remarks 
which came from his religious instructor; I refer 
to what is known by his most intimate friends, — he 
was a man who could stand up before the universe, 
and challenge any aspersion. There never was a 
man who spoke ill of him. He eminently is exposed 
to the woe that, it is said, belongs to him " of whom 
all men speak well." 

Mr. President, I ought not to have said half as 
much as I have ; and yet, though it is late, I did not 
dare to sit still any longer, for fear that a sufficiently 
impressive intonation should not be given to the 
highest merit of that man's character. It is not his 
distinction attained in letters. It is not that the 
world round, where the English language is read, 



34 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

and the various languages into which his works 
have been translated, — the French, the German, the 
Spanish, and the Italian, — there is not remaining on 
this earth a man of higher literary merit; I will not 
say distinction. There may be one or another su- 
perior by metaphysical acquisition, by mathematical 
endowments, or diffusing good throughout the world ; 
but my departed friend never knew the temptation of 
adopting an equivocal expression, or even the meta- 
physical refinement that conceals one. No man 
could ever charge him with it. He was solely seeking 
for Truth in the best recesses where Truth is found ; 
and he has done more than any other living man to 
bring her forth in her full majesty. Greater difficul- 
ties no writer encountered, and none ever triumphed 
over them more fully. I would, sir, refer more 
particularly to what was so admirably touched upon 
by his classmate and by his religious instructor ; and 
I have looked also for many years upon the very 
same, — happiness I call it ; and happiness it will be, 
when we think of it, — upon his happiness while 
suffering from what is commonly called an accident, 
— a casualty we will call it (but if there be a Pro- 
vidence in any thing, not to govern nations, not 
to regulate this sidereal system only, but applying to 
each individual, then that misfortune, as it seems, 
was the greatest good); upon his happiness, when 
he was submitted to that awful darkness to which 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 35 

no ray of light was permitted. His father and his 
mother and his sister may well have hoped that it 
should be well with William, 'even under such a dis- 
aster. But he himself, for now near thirty years, has 
manifested to all the world the blessing which our 
great religious poet has illustrated for his own case, 
in the prayer, — 

" So much the rather thou, Celestial Light ! 
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers 
Irradiate." 



REMARKS OF HON. GEORGE T. CURTIS. 

Mr. President, — Standing less near, in age and in 
association, to him whom this whole community now 
mourns, than those who have addressed you, I yet 
desire to lay an humble tribute of admiration upon 
his tomb ; feeling how true it is, that we have now 
lost one, who, in the language of these resolutions, will 
be admitted everywhere to be entitled to the name 
and the rank of a great historian ; and who, in his 
relation to us, added to this title that of a near and 
dear friend. 

I have said, sir, that we have now lost him. I 
should correct that expression. We have, indeed, 
lost the daily greeting, the friendly grasp, the genial 
smile, — all that was the earthly presence of this 



36 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

illustrious writer and beloved friend. All unfinished, 
too, — as when some great sculptor is stricken down 
with the chisel in his hand, — lies the last of those 
splendid monuments which his genius led him to 
undertake for the delight and instruction of mankind. 
Yet how much remains ! That reputation, co-extensive 
with Christendom, which has brought so much honor 
upon our country, upon our city, and upon us ; that 
example of victory over personal infirmities, and of 
victory over the allurements of a social position ex- 
empt from the necessity of toil, — an example which 
has carried, and is yet to carry, consolation and 
encouragement to the struggling scholar in all lands, — 
which appeals, and is yet to appeal, so powerfully to 
the wealthy youth of our own country ; that beautiful 
character, which has caused a whole community to feel 
as if touched by a personal loss, and to pour their 
tears upon his grave, as for one who was their own ; 
those works, which are to exist so long as any vestiges 
of our civilization remain, side by side with the im- 
perishable writings of the chief historians of all ages, 
— these are not lost, because they are of the fruits, for 
the production of which our immortal nature was 
placed in this mortal sphere. 

Mr. President, if I had felt that it was the sole pur- 
pose of these proceedings to express the grief of 
personal affection, I should not have ventured to 
address you ; for, although I have for many years 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 37 

been honored by the personal regard of the late Mr. 
Prescott, what belongs to the duties of friendship has 
come, and will doubtless again come, from others. 
But to me, sir, an humble amateur in that noble art 
in which our lamented friend was so distinguished, 
this occasion has — I would not say a higher, for 
what can be higher or holier than the last rites of 
love '? — to me this occasion has a further interest. It 
seems to me to call, not for vindication, not for de- 
fence, not for challenge ; but for the briefest and most 
simple statement of the value and dignity of the labors 
of our deceased friend, as they are expressed in the 
first of the resolutions on your table. 

The pursuit to which Mr. Prescott devoted his life 
is universally felt, among the cultivated part of man- 
kind, to be one of the highest forms of intellectual 
labor ; yet it is probable that even educated men do 
not always fully appreciate the qualities, the powers, 
and the tasks of a truly great historian. The general 
public can, of course, only take the finished work of 
art as it comes, all compact in its exceeding beauty 
and fitness, from the hands of the great master, and 
admire and learn, and be grateful. Of that research, 
which must leave no fact, however minute, untried ; 
of that judicial temper, which must yield to no pre- 
judice ; of that large and catholic sympathy with 
human progress, without which there can be no per- 
manent success ; of that courage which declares the 



38 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

truth, though it be unwelcome ; of that power to 
weigh events, to detect causes, to make the wide 
deductions on which the judgment of the future is to 
rest for its opinions of the past; and of that final 
process which fixes forever, in a work of high art, 
the teachings of Providence as displayed in the moral 
world, — of all these great requirements and these 
varied accomplishments we see little, or think little, 
as we pass, delighted and improved, over the printed 
page. 

Such a master of his art was he whom we mourn. 
The subjects which he chose for the exercise of his 
noble powers were in those departments of history, in 
which the lives of princes, the intrigues of courts, the 
characters and actions of individuals, and the move- 
ments of armies, necessarily occupy a very prominent 
place. This is no time, nor is this the occasion, nor 
is he who now speaks of him the person, to show how 
successfully his works refute that theory, which we 
sometimes hear uttered as a complaint, that in history, 
as it has hitherto been written, man is neglected, and 
governments are made all in all. I am sure, that, 
when the ultimate judgment of his contemporaries or 
of posterity shall be pronounced, the works of Pres- 
cott will not lose their place in the estimation of the 
world through the operation of any sound canon of 
criticism that may now exist, or that may be called 
into existence hereafter. I found this expectation 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 39 

upon two positions, — first, that it is in the order of 
Providence that the characters, the acts, and lives 
of individuals shall have a vast influence on the wel- 
fare, the condition, and the progress of society ; and, 
secondly, that this great writer has perceived, with as 
clear a vision and as just a discrimination as have 
been given to the foremost masters in this difficult 
art, how to unite the exhibition of that influence with 
the display of those general causes and those uniform 
laws which control even the despotism of princes, 
and subject the arbitrary will of man to the overruling 
purposes of God. 

But let me turn, sir, from these anticipations of the 
future, to dwell for a moment upon that present fame 
which he enjoyed in such a bountiful harvest. It is 
now nearly nine years, since, on a visit abroad, I met 
Mr. Prescott in London, and witnessed that remarkable 
ovation which he there received. I suppose that such 
a reception has not been accorded in modern England 
to any other merely literary and private man of any 
country. I attributed it at the time, in part,, to the 
fact that he was an American, and that he had written 
in the language which is their and our common inherit- 
ance. Partly also, no doubt, it was due to the charm 
of his manners and conversation, and to the frank and 
genial facility with which he could adapt himself to 
all companies. The peculiar sympathy and admira- 
tion, too, which were excited* by the extraordinary 



40 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

difficulties under which his works had been produced, 
quickened the interest that was taken in the author. 

But I could not fail to be struck with the character 
and extent of his reputation, for which none of these 
things would account. I was there before him ; and, 
when his purpose to make this visit was known, it is 
no exaggeration to say, that, in all ranks and all forms 
of society in which intelligent men and women were 
found, there was evident a sensation of anticipated 
pleasure, a delighted expectation of curiosity and 
interest, which no countryman of his could witness 
without pride. What followed after his arrival, you 
all know. Public and private honors, the homage of 
the head and the homage of the heart, were showered 
upon him by all ranks. What followed on his return 
to that home and that society which he loved above 
all human associations, you know equally well. 

Neither the flatteries of the great, the fascinations 
of that brilliant society in which he was an honored 
guest, nor any single circumstance of his personal 
success, changed the simplicity of his character, or 
imparted to it one tinge of arrogance. My opportu- 
nities to observe the complexion of his feelings were 
ample ; for I returned in the same ship with him, and 
had with him many hours of the freest intercourse 
during every day of the voyage : and I declare here 
this night, as a testimony due to the manliness, the 
sweetness, and the nobleness of his nature, that I 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 41 

have never seen the man on whom great fame and 
extraordinary social success had a less disturbing 
effect than they had on him. That he had a solid 
and just satisfaction in all that was manifested towards 
him, I could perceive ; but, if we would estimate him 
rightly, we must remember that few men could have 
passed through those scenes without bringing away 
more traces of that which intoxicates, than of that 
which strengthens and enlarges, the soul. He brought 
nothing which our most jealous love could have 
wished him to escape. On the day when we landed, 
and he returned into the bosom of his family, into the 
quiet seclusion of his library, and his accustomed 
walk of life, he was the same man as when he went 
forth to meet the delighted homage of Europe. 
Place, oh ! place this token of him before the eyes of 
all our countrymen. 

He is gone ! If it had pleased Almighty God to 
have permitted us one word of farewell, we should 
doubtless have heard him call to us, as we can now 
only hail his departed spirit, — 

" Sa j not ' Good-night ' ' 
Bat, in another clime, bid me ' Good-morning! ' " 



The resolutions which had been offered by Mr. Ticknor were 
then unanimously adopted ; the members rising when the question 
was taken. 



42 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

The President then said : — 

Gentlemen, — We are deprived this evening of 
the presence of more than one of those whom we are 
always delighted to have with ns. My friend Mr. 
Everett is absent from home, and will not return for 
ten or twelve days. I know he will deeply regret 
having lost the opportunity of uniting in this comme- 
moration of one of his most cherished friends. 

I have the following notes before me, — the first 
being from our worthy and respected Vice-President, 
the Hon. David Sears : — 

Beacon Street, Feb. 1, 1859. 

My dear Mr. Winthrop, — I regret that a severe 
cold confines me to my room, and will prevent my 
assisting at the meeting of the Historical Society 
called for this evening to pay a last tribute of respect 
to our excellent friend and associate, William H. 
Prescott. 

I was not able to attend his funeral yesterday, and 
I am not able to attend our meeting to-day. I feel 
the deprivation sensibly; and, in spite of my judg- 
ment, it is accompanied by a sort of consciousness 
that I am not doing for him what I am sure he 
would readily have done for me. 

My acquaintance with Mr. Prescott dates back 
nearly half a century ; for, even in his boyhood, he 
was often the bearer of important papers between his 
father and myself. 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 43 

His literary fame is spread through the civilized 
world ; but his endearing social qualities are known 
only to those who enjoyed his intimacy. The world 
will lament the historian and the scholar : his asso- 
ciates alone can estimate the companion and the 
man. But both will readily class him in the highest 
rank as scholar, gentleman, and friend. 

Very faithfully yours, 

David Sears. 

Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, 

President Mass. Historical Society. 



Boston, Feb. 1, 1859. 

Dear Sir, — I regret extremely that the state of 
my health will not allow me to attend the special 
meeting to-night, to be held in " respect to the me- 
mory of our late distinguished associate," Mr. Pres- 
cott. 

I should regret still more to be thought insensible 
to his great fame and merit, or to doubt his title to 
any tribute which the Society, this city, and the world 
of letters, may unite to bestow upon him. 

Please to consider me as personally with you, and 

warmly approving of all you shall do or say in 

memory of him. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

Pufus Choate. 
Rev. Chandler Robbins, D.D., 

Recording Secretary of the Historical Society. 



44 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

REMARKS OF HON. EDWARD EVERETT, 

MADE AT A STATED MONTHLY MEETING OF THE SOCIETY, 

Thursday, 10th of February, 1859. 



Mr. President, — At the special meeting of the 
Society, held on the 1st instant, to take becoming notice 
of the death of our honored and lamented associate, 
Mr. Prescott, you kindly apologized, with your usual 
thoughtfulness, for my necessary absence. I was in 
the State of New Jersey that day, under a public en- 
gagement ; and it was only by the aid of the telegraph 
that I received the notice of the meeting. You will 
readily believe that I regretted most deeply my in- 
ability to join you in the last tribute of respect to the 
memory of our friend, paid with so much feeling and 
pathetic eloquence, on behalf of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society, by our worthy associates who took 
part in that day's proceedings. If I now ask permis- 
sion to add a few words to what was so appropriately 
and touchingly said by them, it is not that the departed 
needs my poor testimony ; not that the Society needs 
my aid in doing honor to his beloved name ; but that 
I myself, the friend of more than forty years' standing, 
may not seem wanting on an occasion of such affecting 
interest. 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 45 

Being about to leave home on Monday, the 24th of 
January, on a visit to Philadelphia, and taking my 
accustomed walk in the middle of the day on the 
Saturday preceding, I met our late lamented and 
beloved associate. He seemed to me as well as at 
any time the past twelvemonth ; but my son, who 
was with me, thought his countenance somewhat 
changed. On the following Friday, the telegraph 
transmitted the news of his death to Philadelphia ; 
where, I think I can truly say, it was mourned as 
deeply and sincerely as anywhere in Boston, out of 
the circle of immediate relatives and friends. They 
felt his death as a loss, not of any one place, but of 
the whole country. And this feeling I found univer- 
sally prevalent in a somewhat extensive circuit since 
made in New Jersey; in New York, where a most 
distinguished brother historian (Mr. Bancroft) gave 
utterance, in language the most appropriate and im- 
pressive, to the unaffected sorrow of the community ; 
and in the neighboring city of Brooklyn, which I have 
since visited. Everywhere, Mr. President, those tri- 
butes of respect and affection which have been paid 
to our dear friend by his neighbors, associates, and 
immediate fellow-citizens, have found a ready response 
throughout the country, as they will throughout the 
civilized world. 

I can add nothing to what has been already said in 
the general contemplation of his eminence as an au- 



46 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

thor, his worth as a man, his geniality as a companion, 
his fidelity as a friend ; his severe trials, his heroic 
exertions, his glorions success. But I have thought 
it might be in my power to say a few words not unac- 
ceptably of the rapidity and the extent to which his 
reputation was established abroad, and the prompt and 
generous recognition of his ability in Europe. The 
" History of Ferdinand and Isabella " was published at 
the close of 1837 or the beginning of 1838; and, on 
my arrival in Europe in the summer of 1840, I found 
it extensively known and duly appreciated. Mr. Pres- 
cott, following down the stream of Spanish history, 
had already conceived the project of writing, at 
some future period, the history of Philip II., after he 
should have narrated, in works to be prepared in the 
interval, the magnificent episodes of the " Conquest 
of Mexico and Peru." I remonstrated with him for 
passing over the reign of the Emperor Charles V. ; 
urging upon him, that the materials which had become 
accessible since Robertson's time, especially the ar- 
chives of Simancas (the want of access to which was 
so much deplored by that author), would enable him 
to treat that period to as good advantage as that of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, or Philip. But he modestly 
persisted in thinking that the reign of Charles V. was 
exhausted by Robertson. The supplementary chapter 
with which he has enriched the edition of Robertson's 
work, published under his supervision a few years 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCQTT. 47 

since, is a sufficient proof that it would have been in 
his power to construct an original history of the reign 
of Charles V., which would have fully equalled in 
interest any that has been produced by him. 

He requested me to make some preliminary in- 
quiries at Paris in reference to materials for Philip 
II. ; especially to obtain information as to the por- 
tion of the archives of Simancas which had been 
carried in the time of Napoleon to Paris, and were 
still detained there. No difficulty attended a thorough 
exploration of the rich materials in the royal library ; 
but the papers from Simancas were guarded with 
greater care in the " Archives of the Kingdom." The 
whole of that celebrated national collection had been 
transported to Paris in the time of Napoleon; and 
after his downfall, and in the general restoration, those 
portions of the archives which purported to relate to 
the history of France were, in spite of the urgent and 
oft-repeated reclamations of the Spanish government, 
retained in Paris. It was natural, under these cir- 
cumstances, that they should be watched with some 
jealousy : but the name of Mr. Prescott was a key 
which unlocked the depository ; and by the kindness 
of M. Mignet, who had himself examined them with 
diligence, they were fully thrown open to my inspec- 
tion on his behalf. 

The same result followed a similar application at 
Florence the following year. Not only were the pri- 



48 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

vate collections of the Marquis Gino Capponi and the 
Count Guicciardini (the lineal descendant of the his- 
torian) thrown open to the use of Mr. Prescott, but, 
after tedious hesitations and delays on the part of 
subordinate officials, a peremptory order was at length 
issued by Prince Corsini, with the consent of the 
Grand Duke of Tuscany, that I should be allowed to 
explore the Medicean Archives (Archivio Mediceo), 
and mark for transcription whatever I thought would 
be useful for Mr. Prescott. When. I add that this 
magnificent collection of eighty thousand volumes 
(since greatly augmented, as I learn from my friend 
Mr. Ticknor, by bringing together all the provincial 
archives of every part of the Grand Duchy), the exa- 
mination of which was rendered easy by a copious 
index, contained the correspondence of the Tuscan 
minister at Madrid, during the entire reign of Philip 
II., it will be readily conceived how rich were the 
materials for the history of that period. Nothing 
that I marked for transcription was refused. It was 
sufficient that I thought it would be useful to Mr. 
Prescott ; and among the portions of the correspond- 
ence which I was able in this way to procure for him 
were the semi-weekly communications of the Tuscan 
minister on the arrest, imprisonment, and death of 
Don Carlos. That papers so delicate — guarded 
with such jealousy for three centuries — should have 
been fully thrown open by a Catholic sovereign to an 



WILLIAM HICKLING TRESCOTT. 49 

American Protestant writer, bears witness at once to 
the liberality of the Grand Duke, and the European 
reputation of our lamented friend. 

Xor was his fame less promptly and substantially 
established in England. Calling one day on the 
venerable Mr. Thomas Grenville, whom I found in 
his library (the second in size and value of the private 
libraries of England), reading Xenophon's " Anabasis " 
in the original, I made some passing remark on the 
beauty of that work. " Here," said he, holding up a 
volume of " Ferdinand and Isabella," " is one far supe- 
rior." With the exception of the Nestor of our litera- 
ture (Mr. Irving), no American writer appeared to me 
so widely known or so highly esteemed in England as 
Mr. Prescott ; and, when he visited that country a few 
years later, the honors paid to him by all the culti- 
vated classes of society, from the throne downward, 
were such as are seldom offered to the most distin- 
guished visitant. 

This is not the time nor the place for a critical dis- 
quisition on the merits of our lamented associate as a 
writer of history ; nor am I prepared — arrived but 
last evening from an arduous journey, filled up with 
engagements which have left me no moment of lei- 
sure — to undertake the task. It would, moreover, be 
a work of supererogation. The public mind has passed 
judgment on his merits, in a manner to need no con- 
firmation and to fear no contradiction. When, in 



50 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

after-times, the history of our American literature 
shall be written, it will be told with admiration, how, 
in the front rank of a school of contemporary histori- 
cal writers nourishing in the United States in the 
second quarter of the nineteenth century, more nume- 
rous and not less distinguished than those of any other 
country, a young man, who was not only born to afflu- 
ence and exposed to all its seductions, but who seemed 
forced into inaction by the cruel accident of his youth, 
devoted himself to that branch of literary effort which 
seems most to require the eyesight of the student, and 
composed a series of historical works not less remark- 
able for their minute and accurate learning, than their 
beauty of style, calm philosophy, acute delineation of 
character, and sound good sense. No name more 
brilliant than his will descend to posterity on the roll 
of American authors. 

But it will not be in this Association alone that he 
will be honored in after-times. So long as in ages 
far distant, and not only in countries now refined and 
polished, but in those not yet brought into the domain 
of civilization, the remarkable epoch which he has 
described shall attract the attention of men ; so long 
as the consolidation of the Spanish monarchy and the 
expulsion of the Moors, the mighty theme of the dis- 
covery of America, the sorrowful glories of Columbus, 
the mail-clad forms of Cortez and Pizarro and the 
other grim conquistador -es, trampling new-found em- 



WILLIAM HICKLIXG PRESCOTT. 51 

pires under the hoofs of their cavalry, shall be subjects 
of literary interest ; so long as the blood shall curdle 
at the cruelties of Alva, and the fierce struggles of the 
Moslem in the East. — so long will the writings of our 
friend be read. With respect to some of them, time, 
in all human probability, will add nothing to his 
materials. It was said the other day by our respected 
associate. President Sparks (a competent authority), 
that no historian, ancient or modern, exceeded Mr. 
Prescott in the depth and accuracy of his researches. 
He has driven his artesian criticism through wretched 
modern compilations, and the trashy exaggerations of 
mteiwening commentators, down to the original con- 
temporary witnesses ; and the sparkling waters of 
truth have gushed up from the living rock. In the 
details of his narrative, farther light may be obtained 
from sources not yet accessible. The first letter of 
Cortez may be brought to light; the hieroglyphics 
of Palenque may be deciphered: but the history of 
the Spanish empire, during the period for which he 
has treated it, will be read by posterity for general 
information, not in the ancient Spanish authors, not 
in black-letter chronicles, but in the volumes of Pres- 
cott. 

Finally, sir, among the masters of historical writing 
— the few great names of ancient and modern renown 
in this department — our lamented friend and asso- 
ciate has passed to a place among the most honored 



52 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

and distinguished. Whenever this branch of polite 
literature shall be treated of by some future Bacon, 
and the names of those shall be repeated, who have 
possessed in the highest degree that rare skill by 
which the traces of a great plan in the fortunes of 
mankind are explored, and the living body of a nation 
is dissected by the keen edge of truth, and guilty 
kings and guilty races summoned to the bar of jus- 
tice, and the footsteps of God pointed out along the 
pathways of time, his name will be mentioned with 
the immortal trios of Greece and of Home, and the few 
who in the modern languages stand out the rivals of 
their fame. 

No one can speak of our dear departed friend 
without recollecting the infirmity under which he 
labored the greater part of his days, and with which 
Providence, in his case, applied the solemn law of 
compensation, by which the blessings of life are en- 
joyed, and endowments balanced by sorrows. To 
some it is given to ascend the heights of fame 
through the narrow and cheerless path of penury. 
Others toil patiently on beneath a load of domestic 
care and bereavement, — the loss of the dutiful, the 
hopeful, and the beloved. For him that dares to 
intrude on public life (as our friend never did), fero- 
cious detraction stands ready to fly at his throat, and 
petty malice to yelp at his heels. Our friend achieved 
the miracle of his unexampled success under the pri- 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 53 

vation — at times the total privation — of the dearest 
of the senses, — that through which the spirit of man 
is wedded to the lovely forms of the visible universe. 
At intervals, for some years before he commenced his 
historical labors, for him, as for the kindred genius by 
whose example he tells us he took courage, — 

" Seasons returned ; but not for him returned 
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, 
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, 
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine." 

But he went from his darkened chamber and his 
couch of pain to his noble work, as a strong man 
rejoicing to run a race. A kind Providence at inter- 
vals raised the veil from his eyes, and his sweet 
resignation and heroic fortitude turned his trials into 
a blessing. His impaired sight gave him concentrated 
mental vision : and so he lived his great day, illustri- 
ous without an enemy, successful without an envier ; 
wrought out his four historical epics to the admiration 
of the age ; and passed away at the grand climacteric, 
not of years alone, but of love and fame. 

" Tbv 7T£pi ~M.ovo' k<j>i?\,rjoe, didov d' ayadov re nanov re* 
Ofdalfitiv fxev ufiepoe, didov d' rjdelav aoidr/v." 



